Saturday afternoon

I just got back from an awesome ride on the Polaris. Ron & Marilyn took their Polaris, Chris down the street and his daughter Mia took their Polaris and Lyn and Dan came along with me. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we had a great time. It was slightly breezy and a little dusty, but we got by. After a couple of climbs uphill and subsequent decents downhill, we decided that Lyn needed to ride with Chris to balance out his weight a little. It gave Dan a little more elbow room. I think Chris and Mia had a great time, although we helped him get is pimped out Polaris all dirty and probably gave it a few scratches.

I made a great video of Lyn, Chris and Mia coming down a hill, but something happened and only the audio came through. It's not the same! So I won't post it.

I'm watching Uncle Buck right now, unwinding from the ride. Not sure what I'm doing tonight, but have some work to do in order to get ready for Dennis' return tomorrow. The boys and I are all looking forward to him coming home from Toledo!!

I hope everyone has a great Saturday night! Feel free to leave comments on my posts or react to the posts. It lets me know people read them! Thank you!!

Friday.....night

Well it's Friday night and much has happened since Wednesday morning. Wednesday evening I can't remember what happened. Thursday night, the boys and I went for a ride to Walmart to get some eggs and a Cardinals t-shirt. They love going for a ride in the car, even if they don't get to go inside once we get there!! I got some eggs, a Cardinals t-shirt for $14.82 and a "crock" for the boys' cage that fastens onto the wire sides so they can't tip it over.

The trip to Walmart was followed by me frying up some tofu, throwing in some spaghetti sauce, and cooking some pasta. Dinner was fabulous! I've officially decided to give up on the vegetarian eating style because of the effect it has on me. I tried for 2 weeks, and it really didn't work for me. So I'll eat meat but try to eat less of it. I threw in some falafel "meat" balls and my dinner was fabulous. After dinner, I made a pan of 2 boxes of brownies and another pan of 1 box of brownies for our "Cardinals day" tailgate on Friday. I sat down to Facebook with a glass of Glenlivet to watch American Idol and HDNet Fights. It was a fabulous evening!

Today, I bought pizzas for my whole team for lunch. I love CostCo pizza! The team loved it too. Who'd a thought that $97 could buy so much employee satisfaction! After work, I straightened up a bit and then Marilyn invited me and the boys down for wine. She made some (get this) pizza for dinner which was fabulous. We had about 4 bottles of wine (that was after the 1 they had before I got there). Ron's friend Scott, who's in town for business, stopped by to have some wine and pizza with us. The boys love Ron & Marilyn's back yard and their house. They definitely got their exercise! Now they are both sleeping like babies.

ADT's coming tomorrow, then we are going for a Polaris ride. I think Chris at the end of the street and Bondy on the next street over might be going with us. It'll be fun! I'm calling Lyn & Dan in the morning ot see if they want to venture out again. Last weekend was a TON of fun!

I hope everyone has a fine Saturday. Take care, and I'll blog more later!

Wednesday morning

It's morning 5 without Dennis here. The dogs have been very needy because they miss him and require all of their affection from me. Every little noise, they jump up and run to the front door to see if it's him. Poor babies! Brother Boy was just at the front door whining. They sure do miss him!

I'm battling a cold this week. It started Sunday after coming home from Ray & Mary's. Not sure if it was from the airplane ride on Wednesday or if it was the girls/germ factories at their house on Saturday. Either way, it stinks. I hate having a cold! I do feel a little better today, although now the hacking cough is starting. I sure hope I get over it before Dennis comes home Sunday and that he doesn't bring some bug home from Ohio!

Monday after work, the dogs and I went to run some errands. We had to ship something to my parents from the UPS store, then I ran into Fry's to get some groceries. After that it was off to CostCo so I could order a birthday cake from one of my leaders. I picked up a couple of things while I was there. Tuesday I had training downtown in the afternoon and it was nearly 6pm by the time I got home. The dogs had to spend 10 hours in their crate that day, but they did just fine. Last night was American Idol night - it was a little lame. I hope its better tonight.

More to come later. I would encourage you to sign up for Facebook and send me a friend request. Have a great Wednesday!!

Busy Fun Weekend

Dennis arrived safely in Ohio where it's very cold. He is enjoying spending time with him mom and both his and my family.

Saturday, after I got home from work, I went for a Buggy ride with Ron & Marilyn. Lyn and Dan came along with me. They had a great time, and so did I. Here's a picture of our buggy on top of the mountain that we climbed. It was a beautiful day for a ride!

After I got home from that, I took a shower and sat down to relax. I called Ray & Mary to see what they were up to and they invited me and the boys over. I decided to take an overnight bag and some wine. I had some pizza with them and we had a few bottles of wine. We were all tired and called it a night about 10:30 or 11:00. The boys didn't sleep so well in Ray & Mary's suite. They kept getting up, getting off the bed, and waking me up. About 5am during one of these incidents, Brother Boy caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the arcadia door and let out a few loud barks. I quickly quieted him and we went back to bed.

I took the boys to Wag N' Wash this morning to get groomed. While they were there, I went to FEZ on Central to meet Terry and Cindy for bruch. It was delicious! I then went to Target, Ana's Linens, Walmart and PetSmart to get rugs and dog food. I'm now home, blogging, and the dogs are sound asleep. Below is a picture of them post-grooming. They look a little foofy right now, but it'll grow out and they'll look masculine again. They smell so good!

Drama's on the left if you were wondering. He's the one with that 'woe is me' look on his face. They are such great dogs! We love them so!

I hope everyone has a great week. I'll blog when I can. Dennis comes home Sunday. I hope he enjoys his week there. We are anxious for his return to Phoenix!

In Memory of Matthew Renn

This page is dedicated to the memory of Matthew Renn, who left us on May 22, 2008 after a brief but courageous battle with cancer. Matt was born January 20, 1965. Tuesday would have been his 44th birthday. Anyone who knew him, remembers his strong personality, his sense of self-determination and his sense of humor. In a complex world, Matthew broke everything down in the most simplest terms. "Why can't they just take it out?" he once said to me, right after entering the hospital in February.

I want to share a dream that I had about Matthew about 6 days before his birthday. I was at Matt's house - although it wasn't really his house - and he was there. He didn't have his hearing aid, he was normal weight and he was wearing a white gown. To me, it was a miracle that he was alive. We talked, and I told him that he needed to call his mom right now to let her know he's ok. Matt said that he couldn't do that, and wanted me to tell her. After a brief back-and-forth about the situation, in the way that Matthew always did, Matt insisted that I call his mom to tell her he's OK. Soon after this, I woke up and realized it was all a dream. Matt wasn't alive.

But I knew that this wasn't just any ordinary dream. I knew that there was a message there for me to deliver. I pondered the dream all morning as I was exercising, having breakfast, and getting ready for work. Finally, in a moment of clarity, it all came together. Matthew wanted me to tell his mom that he was OK on the other side. That's the message I was to deliver. So I began to compose an e-mail to Aunt Rachel as well as Matt's sisters Veronica and Cecelia. I told them about my dream and that I felt very strongly that this was a message from Matt that I needed to deliver.

Veronica e-mailed me to let me know that she had read my e-mail to Aunt Rachel and that it made her feel much better even though she was crying. What an amazing sense of relief I felt. I felt like I had finally said goodbye to Matt and honored his memory. Matthew fought his whole life to overcome challenges. He never gave up. Even though cancer ultimately took him from us, his memory will live on, and we can all learn from his courage and determination. On this, the week of your birthday, I just want to say..........we love you Matthew, and we miss you.

End of the weekend

Well, it's late Sunday and another weekend is past. Friday we had a nice evening. After a vegetarian dinner, Ron and Marilyn came over and we drank a few bottles of wine and quizzed Steve on his experiences at Thousand Trails in Leavenworth and learned the details of why he left. Saturday, Steve and Dennis helped Ron and Marilyn move their broken down TV from the 2nd story to the 1st story of their house. Then, Dennis went to the Motor Home to get out the roof and windshield for the buggy. When he got home, he and Steve went for a buggy ride with Ron and Marilyn while I stayed home to watch the dogs and start packing for my trip to Dallas Sunday.

After the ride, we talked to Ron and Marilyn and decided we would have a potluck style vegetarian dinner Saturday night. I made tofu chili which was fantastic. Marilyn made some wonderful vegetarian meatballs that we had with pasta and red sauce. Marilyn also brought some garlic bread and Texas toast. It was a delicious, very filling meal! We had a bottle of wine with dinner, and watched the Barrett Jackson auction afterwards.

Ron and Marilyn left and we decided to watch the movie Juno as it was coming on one of the premium channels. Dennis surfed for a job while Steve and I watched the movie. I managed to finish packing before that so that I could go to bed stress free. I was up until about midnight and had to get up at 5am to be ready to be picked up by 6am. We had a nice journey to Dallas, and did some running around when we got here. We were away from the hotel during most of the Cardinals game so - thank goodness for Facebook - I received updates from Dave in San Diego and Ruthanne in Gilbert. I was very relieved to hear the Cardinals won the game! Woohoo!

Back to the hotel and it was time to open some wine. Did you know that you cannot bring your own wine into a hotel in Irving? We had to take it back out to the car and sneak it into the hotel in our bags. It felt like we were in high school trying to get away with something. I don't quite understand the law but I guess I don't have to. We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant and then came back to Lisa's room to inspect 200 binders to make sure the debossing was done right and the solar calculator inside worked. When we were done with that, we all came to our own rooms, and here I am. The next 3 days are going to be filled with a lot of hard work and long hours. I'm going to bed soon so that I'll be ready.

Take care, and have a great week! I most likely won't be able to blog much until the end of the week.

Thursday evening

We had a schedule change this morning. I slept in because Dennis didn't have to get up. Unfortunately, it's because he got laid off yesterday. His job was eliminated because the drug he was preparing to support was not approved by the FDA and was put on hold for 18 more months of human trials. Fortunately he got 8 weeks of severance and is hitting the job search trail. Keep your fingers crossed and say some prayers for him.

Steve Fischer is here for a few days with his cute dog Sadie. Steve left Washington state last month and made his way down the coast to San Diego. He spent a few days there with his brother, then headed to Tucson. He spent some time there with his mom and sister and is now here in Phoenix with us. It's great to see him. It's been 4 1/2 years since I last saw him and almost 3 years for Dennis. His dog is very well behaved and a real sweetheart. She seems to be getting along pretty well with the boys.

If you know of any job leads for Dennis, please let us know! He has 10 years experience in health care and pharmacy benefits and 15 years customer service experience. He spent the last 6 months in a QA role, monitoring calls and auditing cases. He's very familiar with the Witness program by Verint and has become very proficient with several Microsoft applications. He's eager to get back to work, even after just 1 day!

I'll keep everyone posted on his progress with finding work. Take care, and Happy Friday (by the time you read this)!

It's Hump Day again!

Wow, I can't believe it's Wednesday already! Working at home on Monday really makes the rest of the week go by quickly!

On my way home from work last night, I stopped at CostCo. While I was there I picked up a rotisserie chicken and took it home for dinner. It's a quick and easy meal with a side dish! I had big ambitions for the evening, but once I sat down to eat dinner, it was all over. I didn't move from the chair.

The American Idol Season Premier was last night. What a hoot! The auditions were from Phoenix and WOW, do we have some talentless people here! Some of it was very difficult to watch (listen to). Looking forward to watching again tonight!

Please remember to click on the "ads by Google" when you leave. I get "paid" to have them on my page but only if they get clicks. If you click on the way out, you won't even notice. Thank you!!

Have a great Wednesday!

Tuesday morning

Good morning! Just a quick note to start the day. I'm still keeping up with my workout routine. Hit the Ellipse both yesterday and today. Now I need to master healthy eating.

I got my WD Passport Elite (hard drive) set up and all my files copied to it yesterday. It was pretty easy, although I did have to make a call to my brother for some advice on how to do it. I finally got it to work. Yeah!

I had 3 eggs left this morning, so I made one for the boys. After I ate my breakfast and the egg I made for them was cooled, I put it on my paper plate and gave it to them. I forgot about them for a while and then I noticed Brother Boy pushing the plate into the family room. When I picked it up, he had literally licked through the plate! There was a hole in it and he was getting extra fiber from the paper! Silly doggy! He's been very needy and affectionate lately. And I'm happy to ablige him. How can I resist those eyes?

I worked at home yesterday and got my self-assessment completed and submitted to my manager. Now I have the fun task of writing the evaluations of the 5 people who report directly to me, and review/give feedback/approve the evaluations of the 43 people who report to them! Let the games begin!

Have a great Tuesday! Here's a picture of the dogs sleeping yesterday while I worked.

Funday!

Sunday was fun! We watched "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with Brendan Frazier and then went on a buggy ride with Ron & Marilyn. We first went West behind the mountain to Stetson II community. Then we found a way to get to the open desert North of there on the other side of the canal. We found a killer hill to go up. It was quite a rush! Going down was fun too. It was a really fun ride. I took some video and hope to post on here soon.

When we got home, I let the dogs out and as forgiveness for putting them in the crate instead of taking them on the ride, I took them for a walk. They loved it! They were tired when we got back and they took a nap. So did I!

I talked to both of my parents in the evening, then talked to my sister Lyn. It was great to catch up with everyone! We watched a pretty good movie on Showtime called "Love and Other Disasters" with Britney Murphy and some adorable British guys. It was a great story and had some funny moments.

I'm working at home Monday to finish my 2008 performance appraisal so I might not have time to blog in the morning, but I'll catch you up Tuesday morning. Have a great week!

It's the weekend!

Well, Christmas is 95% put away (inside). We still have a few things to do like wash the rugs, fluff the tree skirt, etc. before Christmas 2008 is officially in the past. We also have a few lights to take down out front, but that won't take long. We worked hard today. It was exhausting, but it's nice to get it all down.

I took the dogs for a ride to pick up some movies. Dennis is home with the boys watching TV and movies and I'm at Ron & Marilyn's watching the Cardinals game. It's not much of a game so far unless you are rooting for Carolina, but it's early. We rented "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Babylon A. D.". The dogs enjoyed the ride.

Tomorrow we have some more work to do in the house, and then I need to focus on my 2008 performance evaluation for myself. Then I get to work on writing the ones for my direct reports. I have 5 of those to do. What a thrill!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Saturday. Go Cardinals!

It's finally Friday!

I thought this week would never end! It sucked working 5 straight days after having 12 days off! But I made it through. I was back on the ellipse today for my 20 minutes of heavy breathing. It's a great way to start the day!

Last night, Christmas started to make its way back into the boxes and bins. We got quite a lot done (Dennis did most of it). We got the tree down (100 ornaments later) and put in its box. The village is put away and everything is off the top of the entertainment center. My goal is to get it finished this weekend to get our house back!

We put the boys outside last night as Brother Boy was acting like he needed to go out. After a while, I tried to get them to come in. They were chasing each other around the pool. Let me rephrase that. Brother Boy was chasing Drama around the pool. He's fast for a little dude! Brother Boy never did catch him. Drama's SMART, too. I must have watched them go around 8 or 9 times. It was amusing, despite the fact that they were ignoring my calls to come inside. Then all of the sudden, the expected happened - Drama fell or was pushed (not sure which) into the pool. Fortunately it was on the side closest to the patio door. I ran out to him and he was struggling. The water is very cold and it was dark. He freaked out. I'm SO glad I was watching all of this and was able to run to his rescue. There's no telling what would have happened. I then had to give him a bath because our pool water is a little stinky. Poor thing! Both him and his brother were upset for the rest of the night.

We are spending the weekend at home. We may go down to IKEA to their winter sale. We don't need much but definitely need some new slippers! Other than that, it'll be Christmas removal and stowage and maybe some wine. I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and an awesome weekend!

Sure Happy Its Thursday

I skipped the workout today, I got wrapped up in playing with the Verizon card and my work computer. I was delighted to learn that I can use the Verizon card on my work computer and access all of the same things I can access with my wired or wireless connection.

The dogs are fighting like, well, dogs. They sound so vicious when they do that but I know it's all in brotherly love. Plus it burns some of their energy so they can calmly go into the crate when it's time for me to leave. They're currently fighting over the rope/rubber chew toy that we bought them at CVS Pharmacy in Cottonwood last weekend. I knew we should have bought 2 of them!!

I'm hoping that the bundle of motivation that I asked for from Santa shows up at work today. What I'd really like is a job opportunity that lets me work from home so that I can take off in the motor home. I sure hope this phase passes soon! I know it will, it always does.

In case you were wondering, Drama prevailed in the fight for the rope/rubber chew toy. I think Brother Boy gave up and is looking for one of the other chew toys that they have around the house. They are so neglected and spoiled. :-)

Set for the road!

We got our Verizon wireless internet card today. Works great! I'm using it now. The only thing remaining is for us to have the courage to sell everything, join the Workamper program, and hit the road in the motor home! We can do this and still stay connected. Maybe someday.............

Happy Hump Day

Well we made it. Half way through the week. After today, it should be smooth sailing to the weekend. I've consistently worked out 3 days in a row (yeah me!). And better yet, I only ate 1 of mom's cookies yesterday. Christmas is still up, it didn't take itself down like I had hoped. Maybe we'll get the energy to tackle tonight. Dennis wasn't feeling well last evening so he was in bed from about 6:30 to 8 while I watched "Eagle Eye" with Shia. Ok movie, hard to follow, unclear of the end game until - the end. Oh well. It was $1.08 at Redbox, providing I remember to take it back on my way to work this morning.

I was very efficient last night (after the movie and my nap) and made salads for lunch for both today and tomorrow and set up the coffee to brew at 5:20. This doesn't happen often, usually I'm hurrying in the morning to make lunch and brew coffee before Dennis heads out the door around 5:30 or 5:40. It was a nice feeling to hit the snooze without guilt this morning! The dogs appreciated it too.

CostCo has a great deal on a 500 GB external hard drive if you are in the market. With a $30 off coupon, it was $129.95. It's small and comes with a handy carrying case. With us taking the laptop in the motor home with us, I wanted to have something that I could take back and forth between the two computers so that we would always have our pictures - and have a back of them. It's made by Western Digital and is called "My Passport Elite". I highly recommend it based on price and capacity alone as I've done a lot of research on these things.

I talked to my sister-in-law Diane last night. She's in the hospital with a bad kidney infection. She's had lots of problems lately including kidney stones, abdominal surgery and now this. Hopefully she can get over this and get on the road to full recovery. She seemed in good spirits.

Dennis' mom is in a rehab center following her broken leg on Christmas Day and subsequent surgery surgery on the 28th. She's struggling to understand why she can't go home to her apartment. She will once she's able to get around by herself and heals from the surgery. Poor thing. It's really difficult for her. Keep her in your prayers.

That's all for now. It's time for some breakfast, a shower, then it's off to work. Have a great Wednesday, anyone who is watching!

Tuesday Morning - My Reality Check bounced

I'm trying to be better about posting regularly. Today is Tuesday and while I thought yesterday was back to reality, it was only half reality. Yes, I worked - however, I worked at home. We ordered a new laptop and it was being delivered yesterday, signature required. By the time it arrived, I could have gone in for 2 1-hour conference calls and about 2 hours of other work time. So I decided to stay at home for the rest of the day. I was on 4 hours of conference calls, got through a couple of hundred e-mail from being on vacation, and started my self-assessment performance evaluation. It was quite a busy and productive day. While doing all of this, the dogs slept right next to me on the floor on the big bed we had in the motor home. Lucky bums.

So today is day 2 of my morning aerobic workout. We have an industrial strength Nordic Track Elite ellypitical cross trainer. It's fabulous! Once I master the 20 minute aerobic workout without nearly passing out, I'll move up to something longer and more difficult. I've got to eat or throw away those delicious Christmas cookies that my mom sent to me! Sort of defeats the purpose!

No pics to post today, but am also having fun on Facebook if you want to check it out. You can ask me to be your friend using my e-mail address rodney@rodneydennis.com.

I'm still trying to find that magical work-at-home opportunity that will allow me to leave the rat race and go live wherever the motor home will take us. Any suggestions??

Today it's back to the office and whatever fun and games are in store for me there. I hope everyone has a fantastic Tuesday!

Back to Reality

Well, it's Monday morning and reality has set in. It's sad that we have to work to make a living! Vacation was wonderful. I was away from home for 10 days and 9 nights. I saw snow, sunshine, rain and frost. I wore short sleeves, long sleeves, hats, gloves and shorts. It was quite an adventure, and the doggies really loved the variety!

Here is a sampling of some of the cuteness that they displayed. Happy New Year!!

Now the real work begins - tearing down Christmas. Hopefully it'll be down by the end of January - unlike last year!